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2014 Coffee Awards Press Release

Auckland coffee roasters have won out at this year's coffee awards, taking home seven of the nine categories including the supreme award.

Orb Coffee swept the board, scooping three top prizes at the Huhtamaki New Zealand Coffee Awards 2014.

It claimed the supreme award trophy, as well as best ethically traded and best foodservice plunger. Orb also came silver in the best supermarket plunger category.

It's the second time in the 11-year history of the awards that Orb has won the supreme award. It beat off competition from 313 entries by 80 coffee roasting companies to take home the prize.

New Plymouth roaster Wildcat Coffee and Kerikeri's Max Coffee took home the only categories not won by an Auckland roaster -- scooping best supermarket espresso and best supermarket plunger respectively.

The awards, held at the Bell Tea and Coffee Company headquarters in Auckland, were judged by a team of 12 experts, headed by international coffee consultant Instaurator.

"The category that really showed great improvement this year was the single origin category," said Instaurator.

"The coffees were much more sophisticated. They were more refined showing much more interesting, nuanced flavours. This is probably because the roasting style in New Zealand has changed."

New Zealand coffees could "hold their head high when compared to the rest of the world", he said.